The Burckhard Family

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

We are so excited to share with you all that our family will be a feature story in the February 1st issue of Woman's World magazine. It actually hits the stands on January 25th...if you'd like to take a peek while waiting in line to pay your groceries! :)

Way last September, an editor from the magazine called and said that they had seen the clip done by our local TV station on our adoption and were wondering if we would agree to be interviewed and photographed for their magazine. I told them that we would but that maybe they should go and look at the Reece's Rainbow site because there are many families on there besides us who are much more inspiring. But, she said that they wanted to stick with us.

One thing I was adamant about was that Reece's Rainbow would get some publicity out of this. I can't wait to see if they did put the website information and how people can pursue adoptions of children with Down syndrome.

Over the next few months, we didn't hear from them, so I figured it wasn't approved as a story and that was that. However, we got called two days before Thanksgiving with them wanting to interview me and have a photo shoot...all on the Thanksgiving weekend.

I was interviewed over the phone and they read our blog to put together the one-page story. Also, a local photographer (Otis & James) was hired to do our photo shoot. The photographer said they normally wouldn't be able to squeeze this type of thing in their schedule because Thanksgiving weekend is so busy because of family portraits and so on. But it just so happened that the only time that worked for us, they had a cancellation. The photo shoot was emotionally draining because when Grace was happy, Bella wasn't. You know how that goes...

So here are a few sneak previews of the photos the photographer took to send to the magazine. The writer contacted me later and said the photos were exactly what they were looking for, and that she thought the story turned out to be inspiring.

It was a very exciting thing for our little family to get to be in a magazine. Guess that is our 15 minutes of fame! More importantly though, we hope and pray that it may lead others to look into international adoption of orphans with Down syndrome from around the world. Let's pray that it will have that affect!!

We are so excited to share with you all that our family will be a feature story in the February 1st issue of Woman's World magazine. It actually hits the stands on January 25th...if you'd like to take a peek while waiting in line to pay your groceries! :)

Way last September, an editor from the magazine called and said that they had seen the clip done by our local TV station on our adoption and were wondering if we would agree to be interviewed and photographed for their magazine. I told them that we would but that maybe they should go and look at the Reece's Rainbow site because there are many families on there besides us who are much more inspiring. But, she said that they wanted to stick with us.

One thing I was adamant about was that Reece's Rainbow would get some publicity out of this. I can't wait to see if they did put the website information and how people can pursue adoptions of children with Down syndrome.

Over the next few months, we didn't hear from them, so I figured it wasn't approved as a story and that was that. However, we got called two days before Thanksgiving with them wanting to interview me and have a photo shoot...all on the Thanksgiving weekend.

I was interviewed over the phone and they read our blog to put together the one-page story. Also, a local photographer (Otis & James) was hired to do our photo shoot. The photographer said they normally wouldn't be able to squeeze this type of thing in their schedule because Thanksgiving weekend is so busy because of family portraits and so on. But it just so happened that the only time that worked for us, they had a cancellation. The photo shoot was emotionally draining because when Grace was happy, Bella wasn't. You know how that goes...

So here are a few sneak previews of the photos the photographer took to send to the magazine. The writer contacted me later and said the photos were exactly what they were looking for, and that she thought the story turned out to be inspiring.

It was a very exciting thing for our little family to get to be in a magazine. Guess that is our 15 minutes of fame! More importantly though, we hope and pray that it may lead others to look into international adoption of orphans with Down syndrome from around the world. Let's pray that it will have that affect!!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Hello. I'm Sam. I finally decided to do a guest blog for my mom. Well, in either October or November, my dad and my grandpa decided to purchase a bobcat. So they were wishing for snow. Well, they got their wish, and about 10 times over at that! Most houses in Minot are snowed in, the snowbanks in our backyard almost reached the top of our fence (It's a reletively tall fence), and the sky is still dumping out cold in powder form! My dad says "SNOW TRAVEL ADVISED!!!" It's been snowing since the 23rd. This snow is probably going to prevent me from seeing my best friend/cousin today. He's in Minot until the 2nd or 4th of Jan. So this is bad for me. Thanks DAD!!!

Hello. I'm Sam. I finally decided to do a guest blog for my mom. Well, in either October or November, my dad and my grandpa decided to purchase a bobcat. So they were wishing for snow. Well, they got their wish, and about 10 times over at that! Most houses in Minot are snowed in, the snowbanks in our backyard almost reached the top of our fence (It's a reletively tall fence), and the sky is still dumping out cold in powder form! My dad says "SNOW TRAVEL ADVISED!!!" It's been snowing since the 23rd. This snow is probably going to prevent me from seeing my best friend/cousin today. He's in Minot until the 2nd or 4th of Jan. So this is bad for me. Thanks DAD!!!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Our whole family was able to partake of a delicious meal out at Applebee's tonight courtesy of a dear friend from church. We had so much fun visiting and listening to the 80's music playing in the background.

Our whole family was able to partake of a delicious meal out at Applebee's tonight courtesy of a dear friend from church. We had so much fun visiting and listening to the 80's music playing in the background.

About Me

Hello! My name is Paula Burckhard. I am married to Kevin and have five children: Elizabeth (20), Samuel (17), Grace (14 w/Down syndrome), Bella (9 w/Down syndrome adopted from Ukraine 2009); and Nole' (7 w/Down syndrome adopted from Serbia 2011) We are a family that loves God and desires to bring him Glory in all we do.

Bella Bogdana Burckhard

This "beautiful gift from God" has been given to us through the miracle of adoption. She became part of our family in August 2009. We are excited to see how God will use this Ukrainian princess for his glory!